More than 50 sheep on their way to slaughter in Turkey beat their executioners to the punch and jumped to their deaths in an unexplained and unprovoked mass suicide.

Herder Mejmet Gana saw his animals, and his money, vanish into thin air when one sheep suddenly leapt off a cliff, only to be followed by the rest of the flock.

A total of 52 carcasses were recovered at the bottom of the mountain range the herd was travelling on, Russian TV station RT reported.

Gana was taking the sheep to a local market, where they were to be sold for the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday that Muslims around the world celebrate by sacrificing an animal.

Back in 2005, Aksam newspaper reported that some 1,500 sheep jumped off a cliff, also in Turkey. Only the first 450 or so were killed, as the remaining animals' falls were cushioned by the dead bodies below.